Infrasound and its relevance for audible sound

越来越多的人暴露在次声中。众所周知，某些人可能特别敏感，他们的生活质量因一系列症状（失眠、注意力集中障碍、不安、偏头痛）而大大降低。然而，次声波是如何被人类处理的，这在很大程度上是无法解释的。该项目旨在研究次声和低频声音的感知机制。这将为医生和心理学家提供必要的信息，以改善对这种声音对人类的影响的检查。一个假设，次声如何可以“听到”，是听觉系统产生音频失真产品。另一种次声感知假设是次声变得可听见，因为它调制音频声音。这两个假设应通过听力测试进行严格验证。后者的结果以及技术性耳道声音测量的结果将为本项目中次声感知过程模型的开发提供基础。从长远来看，本项目的结果被认为为未来的安全法规和次声发射的充分表征奠定了基础。研究结果对于保护健康（防止有害次声辐射）和经济发展（次声辐射，例如风力涡轮机的制造商和运营商）都很重要。

An increasing number of individuals are being exposed to infrasound. It is well known that certain individuals may be particularly sensitive and that their quality of life is considerably degraded by a range of symptoms (insomnia, concentration disorders, restlessness, migraine). It is, however, substantially unexplained, how infrasound is processed by human beings. The project aims at investigating the perception mechanisms for infrasound and low-frequency sound. This will provide physicians and psychologists with essential information for an improved examination of the effects such sound has on humans.One hypothesis, how infrasound can be "heard", is that the auditory system generates audio-frequency distortion products. An alternative infrasound perception hypothesis is that infrasound becomes audible because it modulates audio sound. These two hypotheses shall be critically validated by means of listening tests. The results of the latter as well as those of the technical ear canal sound measurements shall provide the basis for developing models of the infrasound perception processes within this project.The results of this project are believed to lay, in the long run, the ground for future safety regulations and for an adequate characterization of infrasound emission. The results will be important for both protection of health (protection against hazardous infrasound immission) and for economic development (infrasound emission, e.g. manufacturer and operators of wind turbines).